Ipswich Town Football Fan Chat

The invisible Marcus Evans must be wondering why he purchased Ipswich Town Football Club. The outlay to the Marcus Evans Group was probably just a drop in the ocean considering his overall wealth. The trading accounts do not make good reading with further losses for the latest trading year ending 30th June 2010. It is a good job he has very deep pockets. He also purchased four race horses who have not given him much of a return either and are just as costly as footballers to have around.

How the football team performs will have a certain bearing on attendances as will the fact we are still in a recession.  Admission prices generally are too high and that includes ITFC. I am, and have been for a long time, a season ticket holder with two seats. I do not agree with the statements that match day prices are kept at a high level to compensate for the deal that season ticket holders have. Each year, if we renew by the early bird deadline, we are told we will get a 50% rebate if Ipswich Town are promoted in that season. Sounds very nice but I do not believe that will happen again this season. The club missed an ideal opportunity to test the water and offer a deal on seat prices for the Carling Cup game against WBA. £10 for adults and £3 for children would have looked attractive for everyone especially families. It would have been a good PR exercise. Better to get some money in than have no bums on seats! There has been little atmosphere at ITFC this season. Fewer travelling fans from other clubs is due in part that the admission prices for the away fans are also too high. I was talking to a policeman at the Cardiff game whose job was to travel from Cardiff and monitor their fans at the away matches. He stated that ITFC prices were much higher than some other clubs, hence only 700 Cardiff fans travelled to Ipswich. Our friends or enemies up the road at Norwich City managed to sell 20,550 season tickets and I notice they are sold out for this Sundays game against us. Perhaps it is a more affluent area than Ipswich who have to rely on supporters travelling a fair distance to get to matches.

This Sundays game at Norwich is the most important of the season for Ipswich fans and was missed last season when Norwich were in the lower division. With a full house the atmosphere should be great and lets hope Roy Keane puts out a more adventurous side. The opening games of the season were encouraging but in my opinion too much is made of key players being injured. The midfield seems clogged up with players since the arrival of Jake Livermore and Jack Colback who are on loan until January. As much as I like Jack Colback his arrival has meant others have had to take a back seat which is a shame. It has disrupted the midfield with too many similar players. Oh for a creative midfield player. The front player or players are not getting any service from midfield so the goals are drying up and the games have become very boring.

 If you want to get bums on seats something has to alter. The accounts show that gate receipts and other income that make up the turnover figure do not even cover the wage costs. Marcus Evans gave Roy Keane a two year contract which ends in June 2011. This should be honored but I am sure Marcus Evans will not make the same mistake as the FA when they gave Fabio Capello a new contract before the World Cup. What a crazy decision. I would imagine Roy Keane will have to wait until May 2011 to see if he is offered a new contract. With all his own personal wealth I do not expect it bothers him one way or the other, which is worrying for supporters who love the club for what it has achieved in the past. The play-off against Bolton and the subsequent fantastic day out at Wembley against Barnsley in May 2000 are a distant memory.